The Gardeners Anonymous Blog

Eight Things You Don’t Know About Me.

You know there are a lot of important decisions that we humans have to make every day.

Well, I guess non-humans have to make important decisions also. Like cats, cats have to decide between rodents or birds. Dogs have to decide between dog food or the pot roast on the counter. Snails have to decide petunias or foxgloves.

But I’m talking about humans here. We have to decide how to invest our money so we have a big enough retirement. What about charities? What charity will really make a difference? What schools should we send our kids to? How can we as individuals make a difference in slowing global warming?

And as for me, the subject that has been on my mind for over a week is whom I should tag for the Eight Things You Don’t Know About Me meme. Sarah from Gardener's Gazette tagged me. I’ve never been tagged before so bear with me.

As I said I was tagged over a week ago and I have been going back and forth about what to do. I know it sounds pathetic. And I’m spending way too much time on this but I don’t want to bother any one and I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feeling. And I know a lot of fellow bloggers have already been tagged with memes, some multiple times. I know I’m supposed to tag 8 other people but I’m only going to tag one.

I am tagging Amber at Blueberry Basil. Amber is relatively new in the blogosphere. She is a very talented writer and I enjoy reading her blog so I thought I would share her with you.

Long Winter Shadows and Cold Summer Fruit—What to do

Should I or shouldn’t I?

Should I rip out my tomato plants or shouldn’t I?

Should I pick the tomatoes and then see if they continue to get ripe?

Or should I rip out some of them and leave the ones that have the most tomatoes on them?

But if I rip out some of the tomatoes then the ones that I rip out will no longer act as insulators.

Should I harvest my gourds or shouldn’t I?

I read that you should harvest them before the first hard frost.

But we don’t get hard frosts here.

But we did last year.

I read that you shouldn’t harvest birdhouse gourds until their stems are brown,

Their stems are still green.

Should I water my lawn or should I just wait till it rains?

We’re in the middle of a drought.

What if it doesn’t rain for a long time?

I’m so confused.

I think I’ll go shopping.

Getting Roasted at the Coffee Roasting Company

Sometimes I work on my blog at the local coffee house.

They have free Internet access and the best coffee in town.

This is not your Starbucks or your Peets—this is one of the first coffee houses in California. It is the best place to peoplewatch, and now they’ve opened an adjacent cheese and wine café. What more could you ask for?

How about free spine-chilling entertainment—Sort of a performance art thing with you as one of the players?

This is how I like to look at what happened today while I was diligently working on my blog. Well O.K. I was also having coffee with a couple of my favorite friends. But at the moment the “entertainment” happened, I was busily writing, writing, writing.

I looked toward the doorway into the room that holds the actual coffee roaster and I saw a panicked looking coffee barista standing in the threshold. She mouthed something to the head barista behind the counter on the other side of the wall from the roaster. He ran into the roaster room and than sprinted out and past me. I was sitting near the front door to the coffee house and the doorway into the cheese and wine café. He ran into the café.

I looked into the roaster room and noticed a thick layer of smoke blanketing the ceiling. Then the head barista and another gentleman sprinted back past me and back into the roaster room again. I saw flames and then I heard the sound of a fire extinguisher. White vapor from the extinguishers billowed out from the roaster room. I still had my hands on my keyboard and I was still typing. Sort of like I do when I watch bad TV. The TV is just sort of background noise. It doesn’t interfere with my work; it’s just something to look up at every few minutes. I looked around the coffee house and everybody was doing the same thing. They were all typing on their keyboards. Some of them didn’t even notice there was a fire in the next room.

Greenthumb Sunday

I still have tomatoes.
These are black plum tomatoes.

The Shell Game—A Five Minute Garden Project With Unique Results

some type of hen and chick with elfin thyme on wood

Tired of your boring planters?

Want to give your succulents a spiffy new look as well as a groovy new home?

Are you like me? Do you have a bazillion things to do?

Are you in the middle of doing them when an idea pops into your head and instead of making dinner for your children, picking up your car at the shop, picking up one of your kids at a friend’s house, finishing the laundry, empting the dishwasher, cleaning the gravy off the stove, finding the overdue library books, making your bed, vacuuming, putting the groceries away, feeding the fish and the dogs, clearing off your desk, pulling out the Christmas decorations, trimming the roses, picking the tomatoes, you see a shell.

Greenthumb Sunday

The Garden at Sonesta Posada del Inca Yucay Hotel

Dawn at the market in the Sonesta Posada.
This is the hotel we stayed on our way back from Machu Picchu.

Gardener Blogger's Bloom Day, November 2007

My roses are still going strong.

My passion vines are still very passionate.

Ah calendula, always blooming.

My Fushias are still happy.

My morning glories still make a great wall.

My azaleas confuse me. They bloom September through June.

My garden in the fall light.

Potato Bug Par Deux—How to Get Rid of Scale Organically and Symbiotically

Yesterday, during my research about potato bugs, I saw the mention of another animal called a Grosbeak. This caught my attention because Grosbeaks are some of my favorite birds.

As it turns out, the Grosbeak is also called the potato-bug bird because it eats potato bugs and other insects. Now the Grosbeak is my favorite bird for sure. But the good news doesn’t end there. Grosbeaks also feed on scale type insects.

Yes.

Fear, Loathing and the Potato Bug

It all started with a big, ugly, slimy bug that my kids found in their bathroom cabinet. How did it get into their bathroom cabinet? I don’t know and I don’t want to think about it or I may start screaming and I wont be able to stop.
Yes three days ago my two boys came running out of their bathroom screaming “Mom, There’s a potato bug in the bathroom.” My eight year old looked up at me with his big brown eyes and said “Mommy, with you please get that bug out of my bathroom.” I looked down at him reassuringly and said “No.”
Ick, are you kidding? I was raised with snakes. I’ve had rats and ferrets, lizards and Opossums. I’ve held alligators and hissing cockroaches, Giant millipedes and walking sticks. But I wont touch a potato bug, otherwise known as a Jerusalem cricket
They are creepy.

The Tomato Plant That Ate My Yard

I thought this volunteer was so cute when I first noticed it. It was one of those red currant tomatoes. You know, the tomatoes from my article about Teenie Tiny Tomatoes. It started to grow near my patio, pretty far from my vegetable garden. I just thought "What a little survivor—I’ll just let it grow here in between these flagstones. I mean, how big can it get? After all, it’s growing in a two-inch by three-inch area."

Finally, realizing that it would soon swallow my house, I pulled it out. I actually cut it out. The root is still there. I tried pulling it out. My husband tried pulling it out. I stopped short of tying a chain to it, hooking it to the bumper of my car and ripping it to Kingdome Come. Soon the left over root will just rot away. At least I think it will. Hmmm.